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James and Paula O'Byrne

33 Articles

Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, France
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Getting There

As tourists, it’s time we start doing things differently

James and Paula O'Byrne Posted onMarch 7, 2021March 7, 2021 2 Comments

It felt like we were extras in a scene from a science fiction movie, the kind where all the people are gone and only the buildings remain. As my wife Paula and I crossed Venice’s Piazza San Marco – St. Mark’s Square, one of the most iconic bucket-list destinations in the world –...

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Beauty

Isolation revelation: more love, more friendship, more kindness

James and Paula O'Byrne Posted onFebruary 18, 2021February 18, 2021 3 Comments

“You know, everybody dies,” Jenny Fields tells her son T.S. Garp in John Irving’s The World According to Garp. “My parents died. Your father died. Everybody dies. I’m going to die, too. So will you. “The thing is, to have a life before we die. It can be a real adventure having a...

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Moments

Abusing utensils and striving for gratitude in a troubled season

James and Paula O'Byrne Posted onNovember 25, 2020February 19, 2021 1 Comment

The other day, I burned a grilled cheese sandwich that I was making for my lunch. It’s my go-to noon meal in France, and over the years that we’ve been here, I’ve been perfecting it, probably because in France it’s natural to want to make a good impression on your food. For the...

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Beauty

Searching for small miracles in the pandemic’s perpetual present

James and Paula O'Byrne Posted onApril 26, 2020April 26, 2020 5 Comments

“FYI: It’s possible I’ve got COVID-19.” The text message, via Signal, arrived a while back from my son Brendan, huddled in his apartment in Phnom Penh, 6,200 miles away from our home in the rural French countryside. As my heart skipped a few beats and I tried to beat back the panic, he...

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Moments

COVID-19 takes the harsh measure of a once-great nation

James and Paula O'Byrne Posted onMarch 27, 2020March 28, 2020 7 Comments

To what extent is a nation the sum of its people? It’s a question I ask myself when I look at the America that is just now starting to come to grips with the worst global crisis since World War II. On the one hand, every day there is another example on social...

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FamilyMomentsWisdom

Life in the time of Corona: Riding out the storm in the French countryside

James and Paula O'Byrne Posted onMarch 20, 2020March 20, 2020 2 Comments

“It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over such a small thing.” – Boromir The Lord of the Rings When the plague reached Paris in 1348, anyone who could afford to flee the city to the safety of the countryside did so immediately. It was with...

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Wisdom

Is coronavirus killing compassion, or just exposing selfishness?

James and Paula O'Byrne Posted onMarch 12, 2020March 12, 2020 1 Comment

Greetings from Europe – where the viruses come from! I went to sleep at home in France thinking that the coronavirus was a global public health problem we all needed to attack together. I woke up to discover that it was a problem caused by those damn Europeans – people like me –...

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Uncategorized

This is not a drill: Europe in the time of coronavirus

James and Paula O'Byrne Posted onMarch 8, 2020March 8, 2020 Leave a Comment

“Where is your next trip?” By a huge margin, that is the question we are asked most often by our village neighbors and friends. Our reputation precedes us, of course, and it is well-deserved. We are often on the move, eager to see as much of the world as we can afford to...

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Uncategorized

Walk the Earth: Discovering a life on foot

James and Paula O'Byrne Posted onOctober 27, 2019December 29, 2019 4 Comments

We were on a path we had never walked before, in a dense, unfamiliar forest, on a warm but very windy day. As the path veered left, we walked hand-in-hand under a canopy of multi-shade green. The soft grass underfoot cushioned our footfalls, and the wind hissed loudly through the branches above.  Suddenly,...

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BeautyJoyMoments

Alive in Paris, the unknowable city

James and Paula O'Byrne Posted onAugust 29, 2019August 31, 2019 Leave a Comment

The ease of taking day trips to Paris has transformed our lives

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